Just a Scratch
by Rowana Renee
Summary: Dastan is tired. And he's got a small injury. And he accidently goes to the wrong room. And winds up telling Tamina about the events before the rewind. Reference to the song; My hand over your heart while you keep hindrences at bay. XD DASTMINA!


Just a Scratch

Dastan knew he should have told Tamina about their exploits with the dagger a long time ago, well...more like three hours ago...or had it been twelve hours? Either way, now he was having to practically drag himself up the stairs to the palace, exhaustion making each step feel like a mile. He'd left Tamina in her garden so he could go think, only to find himself interrupted by Bis and therefore stalling his thinking time up until it was well after nightfall, meaning that he had to navigate his way back to the palace in the dark while the full measure of his now non-existent exploits in a time that hadn't been began to catch up with him. Or was he catching up with them? It was hard to tell.

Either way he felt like he'd just been severely beaten, dragged over hot coals by some mad chariot driver, and then garroted a good several times before being pulled in multiple different directions. And he was _bleeding_.

Really, it was just a tiny scratch, he thought as he limped up the stairs and reached the giant door that led into the building that was going to become his home after the...wedding...The wound was covered by his breastplate, just a small scratch that wasn't in any way deadly or life-threatening. It was just annoying, pouring blood down into his armour and causing just enough discomfort to make him want to scream and bash something against a wall. It didn't help his mood that the guards on either side of the door were staring at him, but that was probably because of the look of loathing he was giving the door.

"_What_?" he snarled, "It has nice craftsmanship!" Of course, he would have dearly liked to allow the guards to open the door for him; but that would be sign of weakness. He knew what happened to people who showed weakness; they were devoured like bits of meat tossed to starving wolves.

He pushed open the door with more force than he really needed to and, giving a satisfied toss of his head, groaned and began the slow, journey to his chambers. He sounded old, he thought, continuously wincing or gasping as one wrong move sent his joints popping and creaking. It was embarrassing.

He finally reached the door that led to his chambers and wrenched it open...

To find a very irritated Princess Tamina giving him a very confused and annoyed look. "Dastan?" she asked.

Dastan snapped to attention instantly, ignoring how tired he was to lean nonchalantly against the door-frame, acting like he'd known this was her room the whole time. "Princess Tamina!" he said as cheerfully as he could manage, "How are you this evening?"

Tamina raised an eyebrow. "What do you want?"

Dastan tried to look offended, but the world was starting to spin oddly around him, making it hard to even form a sentence. "Just wanted t'say goodnight..." he mumbled, voice slurred.

Taminas' other eyebrow went up. "Have you been drinking?"

He couldn't show weakness, he couldn't. "That's right! Uh...Had a bet with Bis, shouldn' a' taken it, but y'kn...know..."

Tamina didn't look impressed at all as her eyes travelled up and down him several times, finally landing on his left arm, where blood was beginning to leak through the armour. Her eyes widened almost undetectably and she glared up at him. "You're hurt." she announced.

Dastan waved it off, finding it terribly amusing that he could possibly be hurt. Or was that what was funny? Why was he giggling like a child? Something was funny...but he didn't know what it was...that was even funnier...or was it? "Nah," he slurred, "'s just a scratch!"

Tamina sighed heavily. "Dastan, there's blood going everywhere."

Dastan rolled his eyes, slipping a little further down the frame of the door as his knees gave a bit. "It's _just _a scratch."

Tamina scowled. "You should get it seen about; scratches _can _get infected, you know."

Dastan was started to get just a little annoyed with her by this point. "It's _just _a scratch!" he said reassuringly before lurching forward, eyes rolling up and head lolling.

Tamina backed away just enough to avoid being hit as Dastan fell to the floor, then she gave a haughty snort and nodded sarcastically. "Just a scratch..." she mumbled. She sighed again and knelt, shaking Dastan by the shoulders until his eyes fluttered open. She waited for him to focus enough that he should be able to understand her, then she motioned to a spot across the room. "If I help you, do you think you can walk that far?"

Dastan didn't seem to realize that he'd just fainted. "Of _course _I can!"

* * *

After being dragged across the room, hardly able to stand much less take a step, Dastan was rather unceremoniously flopped onto the small couch that was located there, being forced to watch as Tamina sank down next to him with all the grace of a swan. It was so degrading. Tamina huffed in annoyance and grabbed Dastan, turning him so that his back was to her, at which point she began fumbling with the straps on the breastplate.

"Are you going to do this often?" she asked as she finally got the armour off and began to inspect the injury on Dastans' chest.

Dastan, who had his eyes closed as he prayed to the gods to let him forget that this was happening; knowing that Garsiv and Tus would never let him live it down, raised one eyebrow. "'M I going to do what?"

Tamina rolled her eyes, rubbing a wet cloth across the wound so gently that Dastan hardly felt it. "Try to get yourself killed. If we are to be married I don't wish to constantly have to nurse you back to health so you can injure yourself again."

Dastan glared up at her. "It's just a scratch..." he mumbled.

Tamina nodded slowly. "I can see that." she said irritably, "But just a scratch wouldn't have such an effect. What else is troubling you?"

Dastan quickly averted his eyes, staring at a point of the ceiling instead. "I'm just tired..."

Tamina frowned. "You were fine earlier..."

Dastan shook his head slowly. "Not from the battle...from other things..."

Tamina realized that he was still practically drunk with exhaustion; odds were he had no idea what he was saying, otherwise he would have allowed her to think that it was his battle that was making him so tired. Now perhaps she could get some answers as to how he'd known to give her the dagger. "What sort of things?" she asked quietly.

He looked at her curiously, both eyes open and, Tamina noticed, slightly unfocussed. "Well..." he said softly, "The way I knew Nizam was a traitor-"

There was a loud knock on the door. "Princess, your bath is prepared!" came the voice of one of Taminas' attendants. She rolled her eyes and called back, "It can wait!"

Dastan sighed, having to collect his thoughts, and went on. "We...took the city and, I didn't give you the dagger...still had it 'nd Tus was going to marry you...not long after that Father arrived, came to congratulate us for the victory...Tus had given me this robe, was s'possed to give it to father, so I gave it to him and he put it on...burned...they thought that I'd killed him, but I thought Tus did so..."

The door opened and a wary guard looked in. "Prince Dastan?" he said, "Prince Garsiv requests an audiance with you."

Dastan scowled, looking severely annoyed. "Tell 'im to get over it, he sees me ev'ry day of his life; he can try t' kill me tomorrow."

The guard blinked several times, but nodded and retreated.

Dastan hesitated, frowning in confusion. "Where...where was I?"

Tamina placed one hand on his shoulder carefully, making sure not to disturb his injury. "You thought that Tus killed your father."

Dastans' eyes brightened and he nodded. "Ah...right...you were there, helped me escape, since they all wanted me dead after that...dunno why, was yellin' at 'em all t'get father help...wouldn't of done that if I'd killed him...but we got out and ran, when we set up camp you tried to kill me with the dagger, so I grabbed it...it turned back time...y'know that was the strangest thing that's ever happened to me since the first time that I took a dare from Garsiv...wound up releasing some rats in Tus' wedding..." he giggled faintly at the memory, "It was spring, too...the look on Tus' face...heh heh..."

Tamina wanted to choke him. "Yes, but what happened?"

Dastan blinked. "Well they weren't both the same _kind _of rat, see, princess? And it was _spring_. So they sort of chased each other for a bit and then...well I didn't know what they were doing anyways...but Gar said that they were trying to eat each other because one was a girl and the other one was a...but it didn't _look _like they were eating each other so I really don't know...that's weird..."

Tamina growled softly. "I _meant _with the dagger, Dastan."

His eyes lit up happily and he nodded as if he'd known that the whole time. "Right...did you know it can turn back time?"

Tamina closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "Dastan, what happened after the first time you used the dagger?"

Dastan shrugged lightly. "You tried t'kill me again, managed to rip my chest open...really hurt, that did...but I fixed it by changing time again...then you found out...weren't pleased with that very much..."

The door opened and a servent looked in, looking absolutely terrified. "Your...your father has...ar...arrived, Prince Dastan..." he mumbled.

Dastan gritted his teeth and glared furiously. "I'm tryin' to tell a _story_!" he practically wailed.

Tamina chuckled lightly, noting that she needed to get Dastan to hurry up and finish so he could get some sleep and, hopefully, return to normal. People got strange when they didn't have enough sleep. "Dastan, shh...it's alright, he's just saying that your father's here."

The servent made a small sound of distress and hurried away, at which point Dastan visably relaxed. "mm...After that there was a lot of running...you yelled a lot, like, a lot, princess...eventually found out that it wasn't Tus, it was my uncle, that killed father..."

Tamina listened quietly, absently rubbing small circles on Dastans' chest while she did so. It was strange to hear of all the things they'd done but she couldn't remember. It left her to wonder if it had really happened. She knew that it was possible, but then, she wasn't sure if she wanted it to be or not. She hoped he would finish soon; she couldn't help but notice that Dastans' eyes were looking more and more focussed as he went on.

And then the door opened again.

To admit Garsiv. "Dastan!" he roared, "I called for you three hours ago! It would have taken you all of two seconds, but no, you were too busy with-" his eyes landed on Tamina. "Oh." his mouth opened and closed several times as he realized his mistake. He'd come in so he could rage at his younger brother, not expecting said younger brother to be with Tamina. Nor had he expected Tamina to be with Dastan. His eyes went wide and he quickly retreated. "Um...er...sorry!" he said hastily, "I didn't...um...I'll just..."

Dastan was glaring at him, looking for something to throw. "How many more times are going to get interrupted?" he said miserably.

Garsiv, looking rather humiliated, went red and headed out the door as quickly as he could. "Right...eh...come to my chambers when you're...uh...finished...I need to...erh...show you something...never again..._never_..._again_..."


End file.
